Youth leaders file petition to cancel Duterte Youth Party-list registration

Youth leaders on Thursday filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to cancel the registration of the Duterte Youth Party-list, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said. 

According to the NUPL, the petitioners called on the poll body to issue a show cause order as well as to cancel Duterte Youth’s registration and disqualify it from the elections.

This is over the Duterte Youth tagging party-lists and individuals with the communist party in Facebook posts and livestreams between February and April.

The petitioners said this violates Comelec Resolution No. 11127.

“The law is unequivocal: red-tagging during the election period is a punishable election offense. It cannot be tolerated, least of all by groups seeking to sit in Congress and represent the Filipino people,” Ephraim Cortez, the petitioners' lawyer, said in a statement.

Cortez stressed that red-tagging is not a “mere smear tactic.”

“As the Supreme Court has itself acknowledged, red-tagging is a threat to life, liberty, and security,” he said.

“Allowing parties like Duterte Youth to continue weaponizing red-tagging erodes democratic space and puts lives at risk,” he added.

The petitioners are Rachelle Pagsanjan Junsay, National Coordinator of the Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines; Michael Troy C. Cabangon, PUP Student Regent; and, Francesca Mariae M. Duran, UP Student Regent.

In a statement, Duterte Youth chairperson Ronald Cardema said what his group said were "truthful facts." 

"I have not yet read their petition but I am sure it is easily answerable," he said, adding they would also file a disqualification case against Kabataan Party-list.

"We will be filing a disqualification case against Kabataan Party-List next week because their party-list spokesperson in UP Cebu, Ka Dahlia, was killed as a Terrorist NPA (New People's Army)," Cardema said.

He said he was a Kabataan Party-list member in UP Los Baños and three of his colleagues have died as "terrorist NPA."

"If I mentioned ACT-Teachers Party-list, I mentioned it because ACT-Teachers Cong. France Castro has been convicted already of endangering the lives of young Filipinos when 'she brought them to an NPA Area in the middle of the night'," he said, citing a regional trial court decision.

He added that the other youth leaders he mentioned, Sara Elago and incumbent Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, also had pictures with suspected NPA members who were both killed.—LDF, GMA Integrated News